1

Morphology: Study of the Structure of Words

2

Word What is a word anyway? What do you do you know when you know a

word? Do you have to learn every single word in the

language? Are there pauses between words?

a door/adore; a maze/amaze. Is each word a single chunk of meaning?

“writer” and “a person who writes”, “lamb” and “young sheep”.

3

Best definition A word is a “minimal free form”, words can’t be interrupted:

the writers the good writers *the writ good ers

Words can move as units:John called up his mother. John telephoned his mother.John called his mother up. *John teled his mother phone.

The relation of words to surrounding elements is not fixed—at least not entirelythe happiest dog the dog that’s happiest *the est happy

dog Words can occur in isolation: :

Who are they? Painters.What do they do? Paint.Who paints? *-ers

What about highly synthetic languages?

4

Parts of Speech What parts of speech are the following?

gleamgleamingluminousglow

On what basis are you making this judgement? Knowledge of lexical/syntactic category (part of speech)

The sea {gleamed/*luminoused/ *gleaminged/glowed}.I saw a {gleam/*luminous/gleaming/ glow} on the

horizon}.There was a {*gleam/luminous/ gleaming/*glow} haze on

the horizon.

5

Words and Morphemes Do you have to memorize every single word?

paint, painter, paintersswim, swimmer, swimmersblick, blicker, blickers (blick, to move arms up and down

together) Morphemes: minimal linguistic signs, the atoms of meaning An (arbitrary) sound-meaning pair that cannot be broken

up into smaller segments that have meaning both the sound and the meaning are crucial to the identity

of a morpheme ≠ single syllable, Hippopotamus, happy, river, apocalypse ≠ words, words may be monomorphemic (unanalyzable)

or (analyzable) polymorphemic

6

The Mental Dictionary or LexiconDefinition 1: The Mental Dictionary contains all the words

you've heard (or read) before.

Problem: It fails to account for our ability to easily understand (and create) words that we have never heard before.

squishability tealish unimpeach googolbyte

Figuring out the plural form (for nouns) or the past tense (of verbs) of unheard of words.

dax (plural: daxes; past tense: daxed) bingle (plural: bingles; past tense: bingled) riffett (plural: riffetts; past tense: riffetted)

7

The Mental Dictionary or Lexicon contd.Definition 2: The Mental Dictionary contains all the words you

can know (previously and not yet heard). Problem: People can know more words than they could likely ever

store in their heads.Example 1 Verbs in Spanish: 6 person/number forms per verb, for each of 7

tenses = 42 forms per verb entrar 'to enter'

1sg: entro (present tense) 2sg: entras3sg: entra1pl: entramos2pl: entrais3pl: entran

8

The Mental Dictionary or Lexicon contd.Example 2 Verbs in Nimboran (Papua New Guinea)

4 tenses: future, present, recent past, distant past 5 persons: 1st, 2nd, 3masc, 3neutral, Inclusive 3 numbers: singular, dual, plural 15 locations: above, below, there, far away etc. 2 aspects: repeated, not repeated subject agreement, object agreement

About 4000+ forms per verb ngeguomansedamngeduo - man - se - d - am draw-incl.dl.subj-7loc-fut-inc 'You and I will draw from here to there'

9

Nimboran is crazy Cardinality: How many words does English have? An Infinity!

missile: ‘ICBM’anti-tank-missile: ‘missile targetting tanks’anti-aircraft-missile: ‘missile targetting aircraft’anti-missile-missile: ‘missile targetting ICBMs’

anti-anti-missile-missile-missileanti-anti-anti-missile-missile-missile-missile:‘missile targetting anti-anti-missile-missile-missiles’

And so on…

10

The Mental Dictionary or Lexicon contd.Definition 3: The Mental Dictionary contains every meaningful

word-piece or list of morphemesdog cat velociraptor un--able -ity -ish

Problem: What are legitimate combinations and what aren’t?*run-ity *funn-er *disantimentestablishismarian

11

Definition 4: The Mental Dictionary contains morphemes andinstructions for how to combine them

The Unpredictability Principle: Only list unpredictable information in the mental lexicon. Clausal meaning is predictable:

Ram likes Sita.The monsoon is here.

Compositional meaning: The meaning of a phrase is a composite of the meanings of the words in that phrase.

Problem: Although clauses have compositional meaning, some larger-than-a-word units don’t.

12

Larger than a Word Entries Idioms: The meaning of the above is not predictable from the meanings of the constituent

words. Idioms have non- compositional meaning, and must be listed in the mental lexicon.He let the cat out of the bag.Break a leg!He kicked the bucket.

Compounds: Meaning of compounds is related to their partsbaby powder corn syrup TV antenna foot- rest storybook pocketbook wireless local loop

baby powder = powder to put on babiescorn syrup = syrup made from cornTV antenna = antenna attached to a TVstorybook = book filled with storiesbut

Are compounds compositional?story book = book filled with storiescheque book = book filled with checksschool book = book used in school (* book filled with schools)bank book = book issued by a bank (* book filled with banks)baby book = book about babies (* book filled w/ babies)

Can you predict the meaning of new compounds?fish powder screen glare cat print computer model

13

Smaller-than-a-word entries Some words have compositional meaning:

mynah mynahs walk walkedsnake snakes hunt hunted

The meaning of “mynahs” = meaning of “mynah” plus meaning of “- s”.The meaning of “walked” = meaning of “walk” plus meaning of “- ed”. Mental Dictionary: Summary, The mental dictionary must contain -

1. words- sized units (cat, open, etc.)2. bigger- than- a- word units (idioms, compounds)3. smaller- than- a- word units (affixes)4. Rules for combining 1 and 3etc.

14

What Goes into an Entry?At least: The sounds that make up the entry (phonological string) What the entry means (ex: cat means CAT), semantic features

(Note: This sound-meaning pairing is an arbitrary one)

Grammatical features, gender, number… Irregularities (ex: plural of goose is geese, past tense of go is went) Lexical category: noun, verb, etc. Subcategorization:

intransitive, transitive, ditransitive, optionally transitive...selection restrictions (ex: must have an animate object--* the table lied to me)

15

Morphology, then, is the study of meaningful units (morphemes) inlanguage and how they combine to form words. Complex words can bedecomposed into smaller (meaningful) units.And a morpheme is a minimal linguistic unit that carries a constant,indivisible (non compositional) meaning or a grammatical function.Morphemes with Grammatical Function either signal relationshipsbetween words in a sentence or convey meanings so vital and basic tocommunication that they get used repeatedly. Signaling Relationships between words, relations between words

The box is on the table.John is taller than you.Patricia’s book

Signaling Vital or Basic Meaningsdog ~ dogsdanced, dancingI run, he runs

16

Problems: 1. Some things that look like morphemes aren’t:

relock = re- + lock “to lock again”reread = re- + read “to read again”retype = re- + type “to type again”rehearse= re- + hearse “to hearse again”reply = re- + ply “to ply again”retort = re- + tort “to tort again”

What do “hearse”, “ply” and “tort” mean? rehearse < Middle French rehercier: hercier: to strike, to plow re-

hercier: to plow through something over and over again. (We borrow the word, not the morphemic structure.)

17

2. Different morphemes can look the sameThere as three “s” morphemes in English:

Plural -s: cat > cats3 rd Singular -s: open > opensPossessive -’s: Joe > Joe’s

1. Different meanings (plural, 3 rd sing., possessive)2. Attach to different types of words (nouns, verbs) The Morpheme Test:

(1) Does the meaning of the word as a whole, exactly equal the combination of the meanings of the morphemes?

(2) Do the morphemes have those meanings in other English words? (Don’t use knowledge from foreign languages to “make the meaning work”.)

18

Classification of Morphemes(1) Free Morpheme: Can occur on it’s own. Ex: cat, tree, love, kick, the, was,

yesterday etc.Types of Free Morphemes

Content Word (open class, you can make up new ones): express generalreferential or informational content, a meaning that is essentiallyindependent of the grammatical system of a particular language: play, love,tree, geek, glasnost, novella etc.

Function Word (closed class, you can’t make up new ones): A freemorpheme expressing syntactic relationships between units in a sentence,or obligatorily marked categories such as number or tense. : it, was, he, my,the, and, under, who, a etc.

(2) Bound Morpheme: Cannot occur on it’s own. Instead, it must be attachedto something else. Ex: un-, anti-, -ment, -s, -ed, etc.Compare:

I laughed yesterdayYesterday I laughed*ed I laugh yesterday

19

Types of Bound Morphemes Non- Affixal (restricted): Similar to a content word--

has a concrete meaning. However, cannot stand on it’s own. Ex: -scribe , as in inscribe , prescribe , etc. or -mit as in permit, remit, submit, etc., -kempt, -shevelled etc.

Affixal: A bound morpheme that has either grammatical meaning (similar to a function word), or modificational meaning (including changing the lexical category of the thing you attach to).

Where can/do affixes attach? prefix – attaches to beginning of word (un-like) suffix – attaches to the end of word (danc-ing) infix – inserted into the middle of a word (abso-bloody-lutely)

Bontoc (Philippines)fikas ‘strong’fumikas ‘he is becoming strong’

circumfix – part of the morpheme on each side of a word (en-light-en, a-woo-ing)

French negative: ne-suis-pasChikasaw: chokma ‘good’ > ikchokmu ‘not good’German: getrunken ‘drunk’ + past participleEnglish: Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, Old time is still a-fly-ing

Particular kind of affix, reduplicative (can be a prefix, or an infix), partial or full reduplication

Tohono O’odham plural affix= CV goks “dog” > gogoks “dogs”Vedic Sanskrit, perfect verb (ja-gam, bi-bhed, ca-kar, ba-bhu, ta-tap)

20

21

A Diversity of MorphemesRussian: -ina suffix means “meat”

olen “reindeer” olenina “reindeer meat”Czech: -vaa- infix means “now & then”

pratsovat “work” pratsovaavat “work now & then”Maasai: -u suffix means “inceptive” action

aibor “I am white” aiboru “I become white”Sierra Miwok: the -i suffix means “distributive”

po’al “to slit open” po’ali “to slit open several”Amharic: bale- prefix means “owner of”

suq “store” balesuq “owner of a store”Nganasan: -zhay suffix means “toy variant”

dinte “bow” dintezhay “toy bow”Polish: -ak means “young animal”

kot “cat” kochak “kitten”

22

Types of Affixes: Inflectional Affixes, Derivational AffixesDerivational Morphemes

Morphemes that change the meaning or the part of speech of a word.un- in unaffected, re- in reactiviate, pro- in pro-choice-ment in judgment, -ly in quickly, -ful in hateful

Lie close to the root word Do not apply freely, constrained in various waysInflectional Morphemes

Serve a purely grammatical function, no change in primary meaning or category

Never create a new word but create a different form of the same word -bushes, eaten, faster, John’s

Lie further from the root – close out derivations Apply across the board, less constrained

23

Tests to determine affix type1. Does it change the part of speech? Derivational morphemes usually change the part of speech:

slow adjective slow-ly adverbwrite verb writ-er noun

Inflectional morphemes never change the part of speech:dog dog-s both nounsjump jump-ed both verbs

2. Is the focus within a word or between words? Derivational morphemes give semantic content to a word but do not

indicate relationships between words.un-like flamm-able pre-history

Inflectional morphemes express syntactic or semantic relations between words. They are generally required by the syntax.

two dog-s John jump-s

24

Tests to determine affix type (contd.)3. How productive is the process? Derivational morphemes are usually limited in what they apply to (i.e., less

productive).flame + -able = flammabletooth + -able = toothable??un-interesting = uninterestingun-slow = * unslow

Inflectional morphemes apply to every word in a given lexical class (part of speech).book-s cat-s wuk-s gloof-s

4. How is it ordered? Derivational morphemes occur closer to the root than inflectional morphemes.

writ-er-s govern-ment-s

Practice on English Take 2 minutes to break the following words in to morphemes. For each morpheme,

decide if it is free or bound. For each bound morpheme, decided if it is derivational or inflectional.

baker’s rejoined sillier thickeners unspeakably

25

Productivity, allomorphy etc. In word formation, as in phonology, we need to distinguish those

things which we need to memorize about words on a word-by-word basis, and those things which we do not need to memorize on a word-by-word basis, because they follow from simple word formation rules.

If the word forms that a morpheme can create are quite regular and allows the creation of new word forms, then the morpheme is said to be productive.

If the word meanings that a morpheme can create are quite regular, and do not need to be memorized on a word-by-word basis, then the morpheme is said to be predictable.

26

Productive Affix An affix that not only exists in the language, but which also has an

active rule in the language that allows it to combine with other morphemes is a productive affix.The English -ed affix is productive: VERB + -ed = VERBpastThe English –ing suffix is productive: VERB+-ing=Vparticiple

An affix that exists in a language, but lacks an active rule that allows it to combine with morphemes to make new words is a non-productive affix.

king-dom play-wrightfief-dom wheel-wrightwis-dom cart-wrightserf-dom ship-wrightmartyr-dom cart-wright

27

Types of LimitationsWe already know what morphemic rules have to specify. They can also

mention additional information, like combinational restrictions:1. lexical category restrictions: re- can only attach to verbs2. -ate usually only combines with Latinate stems3. sound/ size restrictions:

Restrictions on the English comparative/superlative affix -er and –estRestrictions on –en suffixation

28

Order of Affixation, AmbiguitiesUnhappiness, Noun

Prefix un-Stem happySuffix –ness

[un-[[happyADJ] +nessNOUN] NOUN]

OR

[[un-[happyADJ] ADJ]nessNOUN]

What does un- prefix, nouns or adjectives?

29

Multiple Rules Generate Ambiguity, Different RepresentationsOrder 1:

Step 1: VERB + -able = ADJECTIVE “capable of being VERBed”lock + -able = lockable “capable of being locked”

Step 2: un- + ADJ = ADJ “opposite of ADJ”un- + lockable = unlockable “opposite of lockable”

Order 2:Step 1: un- + VERB = VERB “reverse the action of VERB”

un- + lock = lock “reverse the action of locking”Step 2: VERB + -able = ADJ “capable of being VERBed”

unlock + -able = unlockable “capable of being unlocked”ADJECTIVE ADJECTIVE

Adj prefix ADJECTIVE VERB Adj suffix

un- V stem A suffix V prefix V stem -ablelock -able un lock

“not lockable, opposite of lockable” “capable of being unlocked”

30

Rule-governed creativityCreation of New Words, including:

new combinations of morphemes (demosquitofy) invented words (xerox, teflon, nylon) Circumlocutions (cf. “Recursion”) “a friend of a friend”, “to get

rid of all mosquitos”New Words: Morphemic CombinationsSome (rule-governed) possible morpheme combinations don’t exist

(cf. phoneme sequences like blick).1. No one has made that combination before ( demosquitofy )2. There’s already a word for it ( *to hospital is not possible because

hospitalize exists)3. The rule for that morpheme is no longer active *pot-wright)4. The rule for that morpheme sets specific limitations on what it

can combine with (category, phonology, semantic etc.)

31

Rules for Combining AffixesMorphological Rules must state three things:

1. the lexical category an affix attaches to2. where the affix attaches (prefix, suffix, etc.)3. the lexical category of the resulting word

NOUN + -s = NOUN ‘plural of NOUN’ADJECTIVE + -en = VERB ‘cause to be ADJ’VERB + -s = VERB ‘3rd sing. of VERB’

Note: the different -s affixes of English look the same, but have different rules.

Present –s attaches to V → V <3 person present> walk-sPossessive –s attaches to N → possessor John’sPlural – s attaches to N → N <many> cat-s

32

Cranberry MorphemesA morpheme with clear meaning, but which only occurs in one word.

blueberry - type of berry that’s blue (blue + berry) cranberry - type of berry that’s cran raspberry - type of berry that’s rasp

Obviously, “berry” means something (i. e., BERRY), and “cran-” and “rasp-” seem to mean something, denoting a particular berry

By extension, “cran-” also means “cranberry”Ex: cranapple = cranberry plus apple

This only happens when the morpheme in question (i. e., cran-) is unique to some word.(This is not the same as rehearse, where neither re- nor -hearse means rehearse all on its own.)

33

Portmanteau MorphemesA morpheme that carries more than one piece of meaning, but which cannot be broken down into separate morphemes:

English -s means “singular”, “present”, “3rd person”, “indicative” is and was, the verb ‘be’, tense, person, number etc. Russian -u means both “feminine” and “accusative” at the same

time. Hindi: hũ <be+first person+sg+present>

These meanings cannot be separated into separate morphemes. (Compare: Russ. -li means “past tense” and “plural”, but it can be broken down: in this language -l- consistently means “past” and -i consistently means “plural”.)

34

Meaning Variation in a Single Morpheme

intermit (put between) transmit (send across)admit (let in) remit (send back)submit (hand in) emit (to put forth)permit (allow) omit (to leave out)*vomit

intermissive/-ion, submissive/-ion, admissive/-ion, remissive/-ion, transmissive/-ion, emissive/-ion, permissive/-ion, omissive/-ion etc. but not vomissive/-ion-mit seems to have a meaning involving change in location for object or data (put/ hand/ send. etc., French equivalent is the verb mettre), but the output depends on the prefix. (This is probably due to the fact that these words are all borrowed from Latin, at different times.)

Predictability and Productivity revisitedA + ize 'make (something) A'

commercialize modernize standardize relativize prioritize criminalize

But... *pleasantize *sickize *worthyize *terribilize

35

In- prefix impossible immovable infallible invaluable intolerable indefinite irresponsible, irreverant illegal insane inoperable, inadvisable incongruous*in-inflammable, in-intelligent, in-inflected

36

Partially productive, and only partially predictableV + N "N that Vs"

tug-boat: boat that tugs cry-baby: baby that cries strong-box: box that is strong watch-dog: dog that watches light-house: house that lights hit-man: man that hits kill-joy: *joy that kills break-water: *water that breaks task-force: *force that tasks spend-thrift: *thrift that spends *teach-book: book that teaches *suck-course: course that sucks

37

Diseases, especially inflammatory ones -itis

appendicitis hepatitis tonsillitis arthritis bronchitis meningitis bursitis dermatitis

Based on these forms and the novel forms below, we can conclude that the suffix '-itis' in English appears to be productive, although only in the narrow domain of disease-names.

Monday-morningitis test-itis olive-itis

38

Describing Peopleanarchist chartist communist leftist Marxist feminist Calvinist sado-masochist

*drummist *Lutherist

The suffix '-ist' seems to be productive in English, based on the fact that we can easily coin novel words using the '-ist' suffix. However, the suffix '-ist' has multiple meanings corresponding to

(i) "advocate of“(ii) "user of/expert in“(iii) "detractor of“

Although use (iii) is probably only a recently developed use of this morpheme, it appears to be the most productive.

39

pianist violinist saxophonist guitarist

linguist racist sexist

age-istsize-istseparatist unificationist

Some unpredictabilityIn many cases, the same kind of derivational pattern

shows differences in form; take e.g. verb --> noun:

1) -al refuse refus-alarrive arriv-al

2) -ion confuse confus-ionextend extens-ion

3) -ation derive derivationconfirm confirm-ation

4) -ment confine confine-menttreat treat-ment

This is in a sense allomorphy: the form of the nominalizing affix is something that depends on what host the affix is attached to (put differently, the different affixes only attach to certain hosts)

40

Competition between morphemesGeneralization:(1) -ity and -th are in competition with one another, complementary distribution (2) -ness is generally available, and does not compete with -ity or -th

-ity -th -ness

sincere sincerity sincerth ?sincereness

chaste chastity *chasteth ?chasteness

scarce scarcity *scarceth scarceness

curious curiosity *curiousth curiousness

warm *warmity warmth warmness

deep *deepity depth deepness

wide *widity width wideness

red *reddity *redth redness

sick *sickity *sickth sickness

pleasant *pleasantity *pleasanth pleasantness

happy *happity happith happiness

41

How is mental dictionary organized?Standard dictionaries: alphabetical order, following spelling (not

sounds) sieve, sift, sigh, sign

"sign" wouldn't be anywhere near other words that have the same sounds at the beginning, e.g. "psychology", "cycle"

Rhyming dictionaries: organized according to sounds at end of words sign, line, decline, resign, confine

Thesaurus: organized according to meaning sign: symbol, emblem, badge, mark, flag

42

How is mental dictionary organized?Tip-of-the-tongue states

"a navigational instrument used in measuring angular distances, especially the altitude of sun, moon and stars at sea" (Brown & McNeill 1966)

subjects were asked to ... guess the initial letter? what other words come to mind? what words rhyme with it?

if they were unable to retrieve the word directly, some things they might nevertheless know are:

starts with /s/ sounds like "secant", "sextet" meaning related to "compass"

43

Anomia"inability to retrieve words from mental dictionary"

Category-specific anomias a. animate vs. inanimate

inanimate: ok (wheelbarrow, submarine, umbrella, briefcase, compass)

animate: impaired (wasp, duck, holly, ostrich, snail) b. fruits and vegetables, or furniture terms selectively impaired…

44

PrimingTask: Is this a word in English? Press button for "yes" or "no" as

quickly as possible. NURSE DRAGE CAT TEF DOCTOR ... NURSE DOG .... CAT

Looking up a word in the mental dictionary primes semanticallyrelated words. i.e. People are faster to judge that NURSE is a wordof English if they have just read DOCTOR. This is understood tomean that looking up DOCTOR in the mental dictionary makes iteasier to look up NURSE. Similar finding for DOG and CAT andthousands of other related words.

Priming is also seen for phonologically related words45

Open vs. Closed class: neurological evidenceBroca's aphasia

Production:"Well ... front ... soldiers ... campaign ... soldiers ... to shoot ... well ...

head ... wound ... and hospital ... and so ..." (soldier describing how he was wounded)

Comprehension:1. He showed her baby pictures. (ambiguous for all English speakers) 2. He showed her baby the pictures. (unambiguous for normal English

speakers, ambiguous for many Broca's aphasia patients) 3. He showed her the baby pictures. (unambiguous for normal English

speakers, ambiguous for many Broca's aphasia patients) (Heilman & Scholes 1976)

46

Mental dictionary

Contains morphemes rules for combining morphemes non-productive and non-predictable complex words

Organization: not organized in single list organized according to phonological and semantic properties

47

Summary of Morphology Mental Lexicon and its organization Morphemes

Kinds of morphemes roots and affixes bound vs free Affix classification based on location (pre, suff, circum, in etc.) Affix classification based on type (inflectional and derivational)

Word formation rules (WFRs) Productivity Predictability

How to isolate morphemes in languages sound-meaning pairing Influence of phonology on morphology morpho-phonological rules constraints on WFRs (word length, final segment)

48

49

50